www.WirelessFederation.com/news: TeliaSonera, the Swedish based telco, has reportedly announced plans to make a public offer for the remaining shares it does not already own in Lithuanian incumbent telco TEO LT and Eesti Telekom of Estonia. TEO, at present, is 60%-owned by the Nordic company via its holding vehicle Amber Teleholding. TEO’s other major shareholders are East Capital Asset Management (5.15%), Lintel (4.67%), and the State of Lithuania (1.58%), with the remaining 28.6% listed on the Vilnius bourse. Meanwhile, TeliaSonera, through its regional holding company Baltic Tele, owns a 60.12% stake in the former state-owned monopoly Eesti Telekom, with the remainder held by the Estonian government (around 24.17%) and public investors. Eesti Telekom owns 100% of both fixed network operator Elion Enterprises and cellco Eesti Mobiiltelefon (EMT).
The telco will make an offer of LTL527 million (USD221 million) and EEK5.117 million (USD473 million) for the remaining shares in TEO and Eesti respectively. It will officially apply to the Lithuanian Securities Commission (LSC) for approval of the offering to the shareholders on 25 August, while the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) has already been notified of the group’s decision to make an offer to the shareholders. The acceptance period is expected to begin on 9 September and last until 9 October, but is subject to change pursuant to the approval of the documents by the LSC and FSA.